A parent cooperative for young children

September 2009 Newsletter

Welcome to the start of another wonderful year at TCNS!! Joan, Jackie and I are looking forward to getting to know all our new families and catching up with those returning. It will be fun to watch the children develop their skills, make friends, and take their place in the classroom! We’ve got a lot of great stuff planned for theyear!

Just a couple of reminders: please remember to bring in a box of 5 oz. paper cups and roll of paper towels the first time you are scheduled. We use LOTS of paper towels! It will also be your child’s turn to bring in Show-and-Tell for circle time. We really enjoy looking at things from nature, but your child is free to bring in anything they choose – photos, toys, blankets, etc. We prefer that show and tell stay in your child’s cubby except during circle time to help keep it safe.

We go outside every day, so make sure your child is dressed appropriately. With unpredictable fall weather, it’s good to be prepared with boots and a jacket – just in case. The playground can get muddy and the children love to dig!

I’ve attached a list of healthy snack suggestionsand class list – keep these for future reference. I’d suggest planning on about ½ apple or banana, a whole muffin or big handful of pretzels/crackers, for each child. We do have nut, dairy, and ranch dressing allergies in MWF and potassium sorbate in TTH. Please keep that in mind.

Contact me at any time (austicloz@hotmail.com, 387-5235 or 387-6084) with questions or concerns about how your child is doing at TCNS. We will schedule parent-teacher conferences in the spring, but let us know if you’d like to meet before that. Once a month you will get an observation form to give you a feel for how your child’s day was, who they played with and what their challenges were. Each child will also have a turn to write a story with the teacher once a month and have it read to the class. Also, we do have scholarships available. Let me know if you’d like an application.

FUNDRAISING:

One of the ways we keep tuition so low at TCNS is fundraising. We have two large family fundraisers, Fun with Santa during the T-burg Winter Festival and Big Fun at the Fairgrounds (or something similar) in May . Some of the parent jobs involve organizing different aspects of those events, but all families are expected to help out for a shift at each event. This will be discussed further at the parent committee meetings, but I just wanted to let everyone know what to expect. Our first fundraiser will start soon. The past few years we’ve successfully sold flower bulbs in fall. Information will be in your cubbies soon. We also have a place for bottle returns near the garbage can. Keep drinking & bring in those returnables!

Our back-to-school Meet & Greet picnic will be Sunday, September 13th at Taughannock. Bring a dish to pass and we’ll meet near the playground around 4:30, eat around 5. The first parent committee meeting will be Monday, September 21st at 6:30 pm at TCNS. Please join us to get the year off to a good start – it’s never too early to start talking about Fun with Santa! Children are welcome and can play in the other room while we are meeting. Yummy snacks will be provided!

There are still a few parent jobs available! We’re looking for 2 people to organize the silent auction and display for Fun with Santa. This is not as bad as it sounds – we have a list of donations from previous years and each family helps collect donations. These jobs are very important and it’s so much easier (and fun!) to have a group of people to work on fundraising. There are also openings in the facility coordinator & some of the organization for Big Fun. Please think about offering extra help if you’re able.

SEPTEMBER ACTIVITIES:

We have a busy month ahead of us. Our focus for September will be on manners and friendship and we’ll be learning each others’ names and the routine. We’re starting off with a familiar favorite, The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Everyone knows this story and it will give us a comfortable start to the year. We’ll be decorating our pockets for sign-in and making bead caterpillars. Next we’ll read Please Say Please, by Margery Cuyler. This is a wonderful book that will get the children thinking about manners and being polite. We’ll be working on our own TCNS Manners Book, and doing some tearing and cutting. Fox Makes Friends by Adam Relf will be our next book. This is another beautiful story about making friends and cooperation. We’ll make paper bag puppets and salt dough sculptures and a mural to help decorate our school. Our last book will be It’s Fall! by Linda Glaser. We’ll start to talk about the seasons and especially fall. We’ll be making a 3D nature sculpture and an underground fall scene.

Don’t forget to bring your family picture and scrapbook page as soon as possible. We love to have photos of our families to look at during the school day!